ORLANDO, Fla. – The most popular last names in the U.S might be unchanged from the previous decade, but Asian surnames were the fastest-growing at the start of this decade, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.
“Smith,” “Johnson,” “Williams,” “Brown," and Jones,” remained the top five last names in the United States in 2020, as they were in 2010, according to a tally from the last U.S. head count. Most of the fastest-growing last names from 2010 to 2020 were Asian, according to the Census Bureau.
Recommended Videos
The top three of those were “Zhang,” “Liu,” and “Wang.” In the 21st century, Asians have been the fastest-growing ethnic or racial group among the country’s largest racial or ethnic groups, and they now make up 7% of the U.S. population.
Rounding out the top 10 most common last names in 2020 were “Garcia,” “Miller,” “Rodriguez,” “Davis,” and “Martinez.” The only change from 2010 was “Rodriguez” which jumped ahead of “Davis” for the No. 8 spot.
There were 7.8 million unique last names, according to the Census Bureau.
For people who identified only as Asian, the most frequent names were “Xiong,” “Zheng,” “Zhu,” “Zhao,” and “Vang.”
Among people who identified as African American only, not Hispanic, the most common last names were “Pierre,” “Washington,” “Jefferson,” “Mohamed,” and “Booker.”
For people who identified as non-Hispanic white alone, the most frequent last names were “Yoder,” “Friedman,” “Schwartz,” “Weiss,” and “Krueger.”
Among American Indian and Alaska Native residents, the most common last names were “John,” “Lowery,” “Hunt,” “Sampson,” and “Jacobs.”
The Census Bureau has tallied counts of the most common last names in each once-a-decade head count since the 1990 Census. The 2020 Census was the first since 1990 to provide data on first names, although the Social Security Administration keeps a count of the most popular male and female first names for babies each year.
The Census tally showed that the most popular male first names at the start of this decade were “Michael,” “John,” “James,” “David,” and “Robert,” while the most common female first names were “Mary,” “Maria,” “Jennifer,” “Elizabeth,” and “Patricia.”
Not too much has changed since 1990, though there was a little more variety for female names. Back then, the most popular male first names were “James,” “John,” “Robert,” “Michael,” and “William.” The most popular female first names were “Mary,” “Patricia,” “Linda,” “Barbara,” and “Elizabeth.”
Unlike the Social Security Administration's count, the Census Bureau's tally includes everyone, not just newborns. “Liam” and “Olivia” have been the top names for babies over the last several years in the Social Security Administration's annual count.
“The names people choose are a function of what they are exposed to, so culture certainly plays a role, but so does social influence,” said Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania. “People are constantly exposed to names of others around them, and that can shape not only which names they like, but also which ones they avoid.”
The reason the most common first names haven’t changed a whole lot over the past 35 years is because the 2020 census captured people from all age groups, and not just newborns like the Social Security Administration's tally, said Michelle Napierski-Prancl, a sociologist at Russell Sage College in New York.
“So you have generations that were likely named Mary or John and follow more traditional family naming patterns or religious naming patterns," Napierski-Prancl said Tuesday. “This is probably capturing generations of baby boomers and Gen Xers, and the newer names coming in, the Gen Ys and the Gen Zs will eventually be building the newer base of names.”
___
Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.